Unexpected Connection
by Scarlet Potter
Summary: Hermione Granger is an extremly smart girl with top marks, but what happens when she finds herself in detention? Hint: She meets someone who she thought she could never get along with. She was wrong. DM/HG, R&R, don't like? Don't read! Flames not tolerate
1. Chapter 1

Unexpected Connection

Chapter 1: Odd Encounter

Hermione Granger awoke to a rough texture grazing her cheek and something long and bristly tickling her nose. Hermione opend her eyes and saw a fluffy, bright orange, slightly squashed face looking at her. Her feline friend, Crookshanks.

"Oh, Crookshanks." Hermione sighed.

It was about 6 o'clock in the morning and Hermione guessed that Crookshanks was just hungry. Quite reluctantly, she got out of bed and opened the drawer where Crookshanks's food was kept. She fed and watered Crookshanks and then decided to go get ready because she knew she wouldn't be able to fall asleep agian. So she jumped in the shower and then got dressed into her Hogwarts robes. She dried her hair with her wand and then, also with her wand, made her hair straight. She then put a little bit of eyeliner on, but not too much. Eyeliner was the only make-up she wore. She didn't think she needed any other make-up, she wasn't that kind of girl.

By the time Hermione was ready, her dorm mates were just waking up. She said good-morning quickly, then hurried down to breakfast. She didn't expect Harry and Ron, her two best friends since first year, to be up as early. So half an hour later as Hermione was eating her breakfast, (eggs, bacon and toast.) they walked in the Great Hall, still looking tired. They came and sat down on either side of her, Harry on the left and Ron on the right. It was always that way.

"Good-morning, you two look like you could fall asleep right now!" Hermione laughed.

Harry smiled, then went back to his breakfast.

"What do we have first?" asked Ron

"Potions, unfortunately." Hermione replied.

"Oh what a lovely way to start the day." said Harry bitterly.

So after they finished their breakfast, the trio headed down with the other Gryffindor 7th years to the dungeons where Professor Snape taught them Potions. Snape's classroom was a cold, dimly lit room with the essance of bitter-ness, just like their teacher.

"Sit down everyone, and be quiet!" Barked Snape, and with a flick of his wand, instructions appeared on the board.

"You have half an hour, get to work!" Snape barked agian.

While reading the instructions, Hermione noticed something, so she put up her hand. Snape looked up.

"Yes, Miss Granger?"

"Professor, I just happend to notice that you spelt the word 'Bowtruckle' wrong, it's 'L,E' not 'E,L'

"Sit back down and work on your potion Miss Granger!" Snape spat. "I shall not be corrected by a little know-it-all!

"But, professor I--"

"But Nothing! Also, just for your back-talk, you shall recive detention! 8 o'clock, my office, tonight!"

As Snape sat back down, Hermione looked up and saw that Snape waved his wand and the word 'Bowtruckle' had been properly spelt now. Fuming, Hermione turned back to her potion, and worked silently. The last thing she wanted was for Snape to catch her talking and him giving her more detention. She sat stirring the potion and adding ingredience, but looked up as she heard some people talking about her;

"Stupid little Mudblood...she thinks shes so smart at everything, but now she has detention! That'll teach her to keep her trap shut next time!"

Said a Slytherin boy who Hermione knew to be Blaise Zabini.

The Slytherin's around him all sniggerd. But Hermione didn't care. She had put up with it for years and it didn't bother her anymore. She knew she was better than them anyway. But as Hermione listened, she didn't hear the firmilar drawl of Draco Malfoy, who always tormented her about being Muggle-born. Hermione looked up agian to see Malfoy working on his potion, and not paying any attention to his friends. Hermione thought this was kind of odd, for Malfoy not to be taking an oprotunity to make fun of her, but she was not complaining.

Just then, Snape looked up at the clock on the oposite wall, and said so abruptly that some people jumped,

"Class is over, conjure up a flask and put the potion into it then put it on my desk!"

Hermione did as she was told, she conjured up a flask, and put her finished potion into it, then walked up to Snape's desk. She put her potion on the desk, and just as she was about to leave, Snape said;

"I'll be seeing you tonight Miss Granger, at 8 o'clock sharp. Don't be late, you will be cleaning trophies in the Trophy Room without magic. Best rest your hands, its a lot of scrubbing." And he gave a nasty grin, and Hermione stormed out of the room, furious.

The rest of Hermione's, Ron's and Harry's day was fine, but Hermione was dreading what was coming at 8 o'clock. Now it was 7:30 and Hermione was just finishing up her Ancient Runes homework. Harry and Ron didn't have homework, so they were playing a game of Wizard's Chess. Harry made an angry noise as Ron's Bishop dragged Harry's Pawn off the board. Harry was okay at Wizard's Chess, but Ron was better.

It was now 7:50, so Hermione put her books and her wand in her bag, as she wouldn't be needing it. She went upstairs and put them in her room, and came back down. She bade Harry and Ron good-bye, and climbed through the portrait hole.

Hermione walked swiftly and silently down the corridors and staircases until she reached Snape's office. She knocked on the door twice. "Enter" Called Snape. Hermione opend the door and Snape was sitting behind his desk, marking papers. As usual, there were the shelves behind Snape's desk with weird jars of organisms in liquid, casting an eerie light along with the lamp. Snape looked up.

"Ah, Miss Granger. Are you ready? Let's go up to the trophy room, then."

Hermione nodded, and they walked up to the Trophy Room. It was silent the whole way. When they got up to the Trophy Room, Snape spoke.

"Now then, Miss Granger, here." And he conjured up a cloth, some cleaning polish and handed it to her.

"Get to work, and I shall be back at 10:00 to see how much you've done. Only clean the trophies in that case." And he indicated the case on the right.

"If your not done, then you will stay until you finish. Understand?"

"Yes, Professor Snape." said Hermione.

"I will leave this door open, good-bye." said Snape.

"Bye," Hermione said, but Snape did not hear, for he was already out the door.

Hermione walked over to the big trophy case. There was at least 200 trophies in it, but it wasn't that bad, because most of them were small.

Hermione picked up trophie after trophie after trophie. Spraying cleaner and scrubbing hard to polish them nice and shiny. Even though she hated this, she thought that if the job were to be done, then it should be done right. There were four long shelves in wich trophies stood, the smallest, leading up to the biggest in the middle, then the other side leading more small trophies. Hermione cleaned and wiped and polished all of them. But on the bottom of the case, there was a cabnet with a sideways slide door. Hermione wonderd if there was more trophies to clean in the cabnet, so she opend it.

What Hermione saw, made her fall to the floor and scream.

A man in black robes with a frightful mask on his face came striding out of the cabnet. Hermione was backing up into the corner as the Death Eater advanced. Her eyes were wide and full of terror.

"G- get away!" was all she managed to get out before she reached the corner. Hermione stared, petrified, as the Death Eater got closer and closer.

"I told you I would come back for you. I didnt get to kill you last time--"

There was a sudden cry of words and Hermione looked up, but the Death Eater was gone, all who was there was...

Hermione didn't get to see who her savior was, because her head fell back. She was unconcious.

--

5 minutes later.

"Granger, wake up."

Hermione's eyes fluttered open, and to her shock and surprise, was Draco Malfoy.

Hermione just stared at him. He stared back.

"M- malfoy? Wha- what are you doing here?"

"Well, in case you hadn't noticed, I just got rid of the Boggart that was attacking you."

"Oh...yeah, er...thanks." replied Hermione, she didn't know what to say.

"Well, I wasn't expecting a real apology from you anyway, because of the way I've treated you before."

Hermione didn't understand. This was Draco Malfoy! DRACO MALFOY! Being nice! Hermione and Malfoy had been enemies since they met! How was this possible!?

"Hermione, are you okay?" asked Malfoy

"Why do you care if I'm okay or not?" said Hermione sharply.

"Look, I know we're not the best of friends, but I can tell somethings wrong with you. The boggart, what was it? I didn't see what it was for you, because as soon as i walked into the room, it changed shape and I got rid of it."

Hermione looked at him.

"It was the Death Eater that attacked me and my parents. He didn't kill any of us, I managed to keep him out of the house for a while, but then he broke in. But he was too late. The Aurors came, I called them when he was trying to break in. But the thing was, when they dragged him off, he said he would come back for me. Torture me, then kill me. That night haunted me in my dreams for months. I used to wake up screaming every night. My biggest fear is that he will break out of Azkaban and come and kill me."

Hermione just realized who she was talking to. She got lost in the story and forgot that this was the kid who made her life hell for 6 years.

"Wow, thats horrible, I'm so--" Malfoy began

"Not that you care, anyway." Hermione interjected.

"Yes I do." Malfoy said calmly.

"No, you don't. How do you expect me to belive that?! You always call me Mudblood, and a whole bunch or horrible names! Your Draco Malfoy, for God sakes! I cant even belive I just told you all that! You hate me! You always have! So you come to me now and start talking to me like you care about me? How dare you?"

"You don't know that!" said Malfoy, a little loudly.

"Oh, I don't know it, don't I? Fine. Make me belive it, then."

"What did you come here for?" Hermione added.

"Well, for one, I came in here because I heard someone scream, and two, I've been meaning to do this for a while, whenever I got the right chance...I wanted to apologize."

"So you think you can just apologize after all these years and it'll be over? Just like that?" asked Hermione.

"No, definatly not. I've treated you too badly for that." said Malfoy seriously.

"Why the sudden change?" Hermione asked quietly.

Malfoy looked at her.

"I...I found this..."

He pulled something out from his pocket of his robes. It was a little pink notebook, with purple flowers on it. Hermione laughed.

"Aww you keep a diary?" Hermione teased.

"What--? oh, no! It's not mine, I found it under the Beech tree."

"So this made you want to apologize? Why?" Hermione questioned.

"It's a diary of a Muggle-born witch who goes here. She writes about how hard it is being Muggle-born and how people tease her every single day calling her 'Mudblood'. While I was reading it, i actually felt like the most evil, stupidest, ugliest, and most horrible git in the world. I realized that that's what you must feel like when all the Slytherin's and me say those things to you. I'm discusted in myself. I am really, extremly, truly sorry for every single thing I have ever said to you. I don't expect you to forgive me. But please, let me make it up to you.

Hermione was speachless. She was so shocked at what she just heard. Once she found her words she managed to speak up.

"Well, you could start by helping me up." Hermione laughed.

"No problem" he said.

And he held out his hand, she took it. She dusted herself off, and looked Draco Malfoy directly in the eyes.

"You really mean this?" she asked.

"Absolutely." he replied.

"Wow, who knew Draco Malfoy has a heart, after all?" said Hermione

They both laughed.

"So um, If Snape catches me in here with you, and I'm not cleaning, he will give me more detentions...so, um..." Hermione trailed off.

"Yeah, I get it." said Malfoy

"Bye, Hermione." he added.

Just as Malfoy was on his way out the door, Hermione spoke up agian.

"Draco?" said Hermione

"Yeah?"

"Thank you." she said.

He smiled and left. Half an hour later, Snape came back into the Trophy Room.

"Okay, Miss Granger, you may leave now." said Snape.

"Yes, Professor, good-night."

Hermione walked back up to the portrait of the Fat Lady and said the password. (Shrivelfigs). She went up to her dorm room and went to bed surprised, but happy.


	2. Drama, oh the Drama!

Chapter 2: Drama, oh the Drama!

For the next few weeks, Draco had been nice, but Hermione wasn't sure she could trust him quite yet. In the lessons that she had with him, he smiled at her and he never said anything mean to her. He even shut up his Slytherin friends in Snape's class. 'What's gotten into you Draco? You hate that mudblood.' His friends would say. But he just told them to shut their mouths and work instead of gossiping about people. Hermione wasn't sure his friends belived him, but she was gratefull anyway.

So there was no more Slytherin's that she had to worry about anymore. Exept for one. Pansy Parkinson. She was that pug-faced Slytherin girl with short hair that simply _**adores**_ Draco Malfoy. Every day Pansy would walk by and push Hermione, or knock her books out of her hands. She would pretend it was an accident, but Hermione knew she was lying.

After about two weeks of this annoyance of Pansy, Hermione did something she never thought she would do. It was Friday, and everyone was leaving the Great Hall after dinner to go up to their Common Rooms. Hermione was walking back up with Harry and Ron, but then she stopped abruptly, because she heard someone talking very loudly about her. Hermione stopped and tuned around to see Pansy talking to a few of her other friends, Millicent Bulstrode was with her, along with people Hermione didn't know the names of. Pansy's back was turned, so she didn't know that Hermione was listening to what she was saying.

"I hate that little know-it-all, shes got ugly bushy hair and absolutely no sense of fashion. I hate the way shes always trying to suck up to the teachers! 'Oh professor Magonagall I think you should give me a higher mark because blah blah blah!' " She made a high voice to immitate Hermione.

Hermione didn't know what was happening. She actually started walking towards Pansy and her Slytherin friends. Hermione tapped Pansy on the shoulder.

"Excuse me," Hermione started, "If you have anything to say about me, I think you should say it to my face instead of gibbering away about me to your friends."

"I don't think this is any of your buisness, Mudblood." She had so much venom in her voice that Hermione wanted to walk away. But something told her that she had to stand her ground.

"I'm sorry, but if you are talking about me, then I have every right to intervine. So, do you have anything to say? Or are you going to just to keep sneering at me like the dumb shit-talker that you are?

At that moment, there was a loud noise. Everyone watching the argument gasped. Pansy had slapped Hermione.

Hermione was slapped so hard that her face had turned to the right. She snapped her head back and stared at Pansy straight in the eye. There was no need for wands to be drawn, for Hermione had made a fist and punched Pansy square in the nose so hard that she staggared backwards. Then the fight began. Hermione and Pansy were in a real physical fight. Pansy had grabbed Hermione's hair and started pulling, while Hermione was punching her in the stomach. Hermione then kneed Pansy in the stomach and punched her in the face agian. But then, suddenly, they were being pulled apart. Draco Malfoy stood between them, holding the girls apart by their shoulders.

"Ladies, ladies! What is going on here?" Malfoy said, half amused.

"She attacked me, Draco." Said Pansy trying to act sad and innocent.

"YEAH RIGHT!" Harry and Ron shouted. " Pansy slapped Hermione first!"

Everyone else around them noded in agreement or said 'Yeah'. Hermione was staring at Pansy with deep hatred. She wanted to keep punching her until she was begging for mercy.

"Hmm, Pansy, I think your lying. From what Harry and Ron are telling me, you seemd to have been talking about Hermione and she came up to you to ask you what you said, and then you hit her first." Draco said calmly.

"She insulted me! She said--" Pansy began.

"And you had to slap her for it?" Draco cut Pansy off, "Why couldn't you just say something back?"

"I would have fought her anyway," Hermione said quietly. "She's been bothering me for the last two weeks but I've been ignoring her. But this just made me snap. She kept on saying things about my hair, my clothes and my blood status."

"Draco, why do you care if I say this stuff to that Mudblood anyway? Hell, I'm surprised you stopped us from fighting! Whats gotten into you lately!?" Pansy questioned.

"First of all," Draco started, "Don't call Hermione a Mudblood. (Pansy looked stunned) And second of all, times have changed and I think the name-calling and bullying with Hermione has gone on long enough and I'm sure were _**all**_ (he looked at Pansy) mature enough to realize that."

"Whatever, you're acting really weird." And she stalked off looking confused.

And with that, everyone started cheering. For everyone knew that Hermione had won the fight. Hermione was actually pleased herself, knowing that she gave Pansy a black eye and a bloody nose.

--

The next day, practically everyone at Hogwarts was talking about the fight with Pansy. Ron would tell the story to anyone who would listen, and people in the corridors would congratulate Hermione for winning and finally shutting that big-mouths face for once.

Even though she knew it was wrong, Hermione was glad that she had won the fight. Pansy never said a word or even looked at her in Potions that day. She wanted to talk to Draco, though. She wanted to thank him for standing up for her. She thought that it was really sweet of him to do.

Hermione waited outside Snape's class after potions was over and told Harry and Ron that she would catch up. She saw Draco and sid his name.

"Yeah?" He said.

"I just wanted to, you know, thank you for standing up for me yesterday." She said akwardly.

"No problem, anytime. Also, if she gives you any more trouble, just tell me and I'll sort it out for you."

And he smiled that Dazzeling Draco smile, oh that sm-- _**What!?**_ _**Did she just think that?**_ She shook her head.

"So anyway, thats all I wanted to say, so see ya around?" She said trying to look normal.

"Definately." Draco said.

**  
A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it took so long to update, but I've been really busy, and by the way, this chapter is inspired by what happend to me a few weeks ago! ;) Please tell me what you think!! Was it bad? I don't care if they are bad or good but, JUST PLEASE REVEIW!! :D**

**NARCIBELLA (Sylvie) HAS TAKEN OVER POSTING THIS FIC HAHAHAHA  
**


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